Old Timers, What Were Some Of Your "Visions of the Future" Back Then?

AlBQuirky

Many times, we see posts from "Old Timers" talking about the direction MMOs took and how that differed from their "Visions of the Future" they had.

So, Old Timers, let's see what some of those visions were?

For me, while playing EverQuest, I dreamed of some kind of journal. A nice in-game way to keep track of your quests. I never imagined what we got, though. I was just thinking of taking my pad and pen off the desktop and using technology for the task.

I dreamed of better graphics than EQ had. Their Luclin models were tons better.

I dreamed of more quests, never imagining how that would come about

I dreamed of gameplay that did not require grouping. I should be careful what I wish for, eh?

I dreamed of crafting recipes that "made sense." Using fish scales for a helmet? Really? You realize how that would smell? I guess if your helmet had waterbreathing as an effect, it could make sense. Usually, the recipes were pretty straight forward, but every now and again, I'd come across a "strange ingredient."

Those are off of the top if my head. What were your "ideas for the future" way back when?

Uproar

One of the better questions I've seen posted here in a long time....

 

Where to start?  Probably can't get it right without more time to recall, but I think some of what I imagined was

#1 - more intelligence in the NPCs / Mobs;  I wanted creatures that would look at the party they were fighting and configure their strategy in a meaningful way.

#2 - more ability to own / control the land / landmarks;  I envisioned shops and guarding trade caravans; I envisioned outposts that I ran for the purposes of mining / resource gathering.  I envisioned hiring armies to protect these.

#3 - More classes, more unique skills,  The ability to be something truly unique; I wanted D&D style table-top skills in an MMO which means allowing me to do things so far beyond the concept of a player character.  I wanted to build traps, combine abilities in new ways then those originally envisioned -- I wanted building blocks of abilities -- not finished abilities.

 

Those were probably always my top 3. 

Harafnir

Combine SWG with UO/AO skill system, Skyrim  quality graphics, and when you travel between planets, you actually go into your ship, liftoff, sweep up out of atmosphere and engage the hyperdrive to the next planet, seeing other ships around you as you go, going into kind of an EVE environment. Not a built world, but a built universe. Possibilites seemed endless with bigger better computers. Instead we got... less possibilities, smaller worlds and close to no freedom.

sumdumguy1

Perhaps unrealistic or still not here yet, but I expected MMO's and storylines to be much more gripping and involved.  I thought they would go the direction of lets say running in a group with 3 others,  then after of playing in a dungeon lets say for 1-2 hours, someone must die to save the group.  The person who dies faces a perma death or does not get rewards or end completion credit and also loses everything earned in dungeon.  Keep in mind I know this unusual but its an example of where I thought they would or might go, real dilemmas.  I imagine this wouldn't be popular with some people, but the hard choice and real consequences would take them in a that direction.

Wizardry

1 I expected better graphics.

2 Better Physics

3 More systems with depth

4 Destructive properties

5 Eco systems

6 Global servers and PC's that allow everyone to run any game with no matter their own PC standards.

7 I actually expected games to become partnered,meaning several giants  get together to build a mega game and run ads and sponsors inside the game. One Example back in the day Sega ran a gaming site that allowed you to make your own server,they also had advertisers/sponsors that donated prizes for participating in the games they featured.It was called Heat.Net and was an amazing place to game from.

I expected PC's and bandwidth to be MUCH more advanced than it is.I guess in some way the cost has not gone up that much,i think i paid around 1500 for one my first PC's and it was junk and that was MANY years ago back in the DOS days,no windows.That is why PC's are not moving forward as fast as i thought they would,they are trying to move in small increments to keep cost down.

 

 

DamonVile

When a friend first told me about UO he talked about how the world would have an eco system. That if you went into an area and killed all the dear the dragon that fed on them would have to range farther and could end up attacking a town in it's search for food.

Obviously that didn't happen there and hasn't happened since....if anything the static mobs have gotten worse but it's something I always wanted to see. An actual "living" world. Where things happened in reaction to what people were doing. Of course at the time I never really thought about hundreds of thousands of people all in a game killing everything that moved but....

So EQN is once again talking about doing something like this and it has me wondering if it's going to be another sorry we couldn't make it work or if they'll some how pull it off.

sirphobos

I used to be a real hardcore eq player. When I pictured a future eq game back then, I just thought we'd see a bigger version of the original. Unimaginably large world, more races, more classes, better AI, better graphics, more items, more spells, more abilities, and a world that wasn't static.

Rusque

Flying cars.

The year 2000 seemed like it was so far away and so advanced.

Pepeq

To be quite honest, I was having too much fun playing with my friends to even think about it.  I didn't see anything in the game as a negative, just a challenge.  We made up things to do daily just for fun.  Back then, it was always more about the people you played with than the game itself.  Hell it could have been Pong and it still would have been a blast.  Friends are what make the game. 

 

You can't hindsight your visions of the future because you're vision was different back then.  That's why they call it hindsight... knowing what happened makes your judgement much clearer about the past than what it was back then.

SEANMCAD

I thought more games would go in the Simulation direction.

I thought 3rd person view was going to be a short lived fad.

I thought over time games would have more depth.

I thought more RPGs  outside of the fantasy genre would have been created.

 

All in all to be honest over the past 20 years I have been fairly disapointed in the directions games took. Not sure I understand why it happend that way, cost really doesnt appear to be the issue,

MsPtibiscuit

WoW was my first MMO and I was kind of excited because I loved RPGs like Elder Scrolls and Baldur's Gate and I just wanted to do dungeons and shit with other players. I didn't really care about grinding dungeons or levels, because I would usually do it with people I met in the game.

My vision of future MMOs back then was more group content, mandatory content that requires interacting with other players, more social tools and more comfort for groups.

sunandshadow

Lol!  I thought there'd be a popular MMO that was like eharmony mixed with Literotica - adults only matchmaking, focus on appearance flexibility, support for cybering including the ability to tie-in iBrators and that kind of thing.

iridescence

I used to think that by about 2014 we'd have a huge 3D virtual world type game that would be kind of like a blend of D&D and Second Life where you'd live as your character in a city and go out on adventures and things or just have a job as a merchant or crafter if that suited you more.  Still want and am waiting for that game.

 

Reklaw

Originally posted by SEANMCAD

I thought more games would go in the Simulation direction.

I thought 3rd person view was going to be a short lived fad.

I thought over time games would have more depth.

I thought more RPGs  outside of the fantasy genre would have been created.

 

All in all to be honest over the past 20 years I have been fairly disapointed in the directions games took. Not sure I understand why it happend that way, cost really doesnt appear to be the issue,

Great we completely agree here

Since you're also a long time gamer you really should know what happend and let me give you a hint it aint the gamecompany's. Then again you already know or atleast should have known this....right?

delete5230

Great topic

My wish list :

1 ) lot of the same as old school, But much smarter AI in mobs, where you have to be much more tactual and smarter.

 2 ) better graphics

 3 ) longer draw distance

4 ) BETTER NON-ZONING, NOT WORST !!!!!!!!

5 ) better coding, however I don't really mind some bugs on release.

 

 

What we really got ?......None of the above !

We got : 

1 ) Cash Shops

2 ) dungeon finders

3 ) auto grouping solo crap

4 ) smaller than ever zoning

5 ) non-social, non mmo style game play

 

To rap it all up, we have better for develpers, nothing for the players.

 

MumboJumbo

Reverse: Never expected them to become/be so restrictive and most devs design that deliberately. MMORPGs should be the reverse of the grind and chains of daily life: Not adding to it!

I would have expected something like star citizen by now (dual avatar games with spaceships, stations and visiting planets, boarding and pew-pew-ing lasers in skirmishes in some alien planet.

Anireth

Given that i played UO back "then", what i mostly envisioned was more interaction.

UO allowed for people to build everywhere. Maybe it was restricted by sever rules or not being able to place building parts yourselves, and GMs would only do it near cities etc., but the game supported it everywhere. There was no difference between a player house and a half collapsed dungeon wall anyways.

It also had many useful items like signs, usuable chars, desks etc., any item could be placed on the floor or desk etc, so you could easily create a display of items in your store.

Armor and weapons would degrade, leading to an increase demand. As (at least on the shard i played) NPCs would only have the tools to begin crafting, and no finished products like armor, weapons etc., the economy was basically fully player run.

Instead, we can often not enter buildings at all, if, it's instanced, player housing is mostly unavailable, otherwise instanced. Crafing is something you do while waiting on your group to assemble, instead of doing "for a living". As such, there are no famous crafters. Most games do not even show who crafted an item - why should they, it's nothing special.

Trading is mostly via auction house or spamming a trade channel, instead of visiting the actual player run (maybe with an NPC who has to be restocked) shop. More often than not, everything (at least the best equip) can be bought only from NPCs or directly as drop/quest reward.

Basically, MMOs got reduced to dungeon crawlers, instead of extended to being virtual worlds.

 

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Distopia

Once I saw the creative ways folks abused others with the freedoms allowed them in SWG, I knew companies would start to move away from those models, so I guess you could say I saw the writing on the wall, in late 03 - early 04. That games would move away from relying on players to be and provide the content in that manner. Hard to keep a successful business when your core content, can turn out to be the biggest factor turning folks away.

 

 

DavisFlight

I thought we'd head for simulated worlds like Ultima Online but with a larger budget and more sophistication.

 

We had simulated ecologies and food chains, open housing with tons of customization, playing items in the world, totally open skill systems... in 1997.

 

Now its 2014 and the features are more primitive than ever before and people have just finally stopped fighting it seems. There's an entire generation of gamers who think that this is the norm. When you complain about WoW features to them they just say "Well yeah, that's how all MMos are!"

DavisFlight

Originally posted by Distopia

Once I saw the creative ways folks abused others with the freedoms allowed them in SWG, I knew companies would start to move away from those models, so I guess you could say I saw the writing on the wall, in late 03 - early 04. That games would move away from relying on players to be and provide the content in that manner. Hard to keep a successful business when your core content, can turn out to be the biggest factor turning folks away.

 

 

And then we learned that making every MMO an identical themepark, with expensive scripted content, is a perfect way to bankrupt yourself and lose subscribers as they finish your content in seconds and move on.

Distopia

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Originally posted by Distopia

Once I saw the creative ways folks abused others with the freedoms allowed them in SWG, I knew companies would start to move away from those models, so I guess you could say I saw the writing on the wall, in late 03 - early 04. That games would move away from relying on players to be and provide the content in that manner. Hard to keep a successful business when your core content, can turn out to be the biggest factor turning folks away.

 

 

And then we learned that making every MMO an identical themepark, with expensive scripted content, is a perfect way to bankrupt yourself and lose subscribers as they finish your content in seconds and move on.

After 10 years + of a similar type of experience something has to give, so I agree there in general premise. Although with player socialization at an all time low, it's hard to say going back to a purely sandbox formula is the answer. The idea of a purely virtual world is great, I've wanted that since SWG was changed. However, you need real communities for it to work, not what the idea of sandbox is today, IE kill or be killed..

Hokie

I love immersion in my games. My reply is covering MMO's and single player games. This goes back to like 10+ years ago.

So I expected...

> that I would be able to play games like Balder Gate and MMO's in first person view. I had player Arena, but I thought around this time it would be a full realized 3D world.

Oblivion delivered, Skyrim delivered in spades (with mods) and ESO delivered.

 

> that when my character sat down at an inn or tavern to eat I would actually be served and see animations while Im eating or drinking.

Skyrim was really close to delivering this, but not quit as I visioned it.

 

> that quest givers would be fully voiced and not static.

One again, it came true. ESO especially surprised me with NPCs that would come asking for your help if you were off the beaten path.

 

> that worlds would be fully realized ecosystems (within reason), including meaningful day / night cycles.

Meaning that there would be predators and prey and even people out hunting or farming or collecting firewood or berries depending on the time of day. MMOs have fallen flat on that hope, while single player games have started to scratch the surface on realized words. Of course Im talking about Skyrim and some of the mods for it.

 

(Now we get into stuff that hasnt come true yet, but is getting close)

 

> that we would be playing these games with virtual reality headsets.

We're maybe three or four years away, but it truly my hope that its done good and not gimickie.

 

> that we would actually be talking to NPC's thru voice recognition software.

This is one Im really surprised about. I remember playing a submarine game 10+ years ago that allowed me to give voice commands.

Voice recognition software is so "stupidly" sophisticated now that there is no reason that instead of "dialog wheels" we dont have (simple) conversations.

No, Im not talking about HAL 9000 type of conversations. But responses to simple statements. Like "Hi."  "Heard any rumors lately?" "What do you have to buy/eat/sell".

 

>  to see seasons and it affecting the world because of it.

I really thought we'd see effects to the world around us when it rains. The rivers and streams swell, maybe steam rises from the ground after a quick rain shower.

That when snow fell you could watch it build up the more it snowed. Or watch it melt away the warmer it got.

All that and NPC's reacting to it. That I'd see fallow fields in the winter. Then NPC planting fields in the spring. Then tending fields in the summer. Then harvesting in the winter.

I know there are Skyrim mods that have NPC's reacting to the weather, putting on cloaks, going indoors, warming at fires. But its all very basic (but immersive), I would like more.

 

 

Fun topic. Cant wait to read what others expectations were.

Thanks for throwing it up for discussion.

 

 

 

Vesavius

Thinking back to those days, I seem to remember that the general dreams amongst our group were bigger freer worlds with more unique content that would only happen to your group and never be seen again, whether provided by AI or human means.

I think we all kind of wanted EQ to be more like the tabletop RPGs we loved in general.... I think we all kind of dreamt being entrusted with our own quest  to rid the world of this or that evil artefact.

lugal

I started with SWG, so expected that future games would expand on what made SWG a success(before things fell apart due to the nge). I thought since ultima online had toyed with a living world with the ecosystem, but ultimately caned it, that systems such as SWG and UO would be the future as technology improved. I did not expect things to stagnate like they have with themeparks. Even worse now with all the instancing. Worlds are static, non living and we as players have no impact on them.
Personally, I have quit mmo's until I see a game that provides a living world experience with the freedom that SWG and UO gave us. Closest thing currently is eve, but I do not have the free time to be successful or a benefit to a corp anymore.

bingbongbros

Like everyone else I thought the future would bring:

 

• Hyper realistic graphics
• Enemy AI so advanced it would make the world feel completely alive
• A seamless world that changes as events take place
• The ability for factions in mmo's to be able to declare war on each other and be able to choose a side and job in the war
• A fully customizable UI instead of the giant gray bordered UI EQ1 had

 

And that's about it.  Funny enough most of the things I want are supposedly going to be in EQN, except the realistic graphics of course.  So we shall see...